Juro Kara, rebel playwright behind Japan’s modern underground theater, dies at 84

By YURI KAGEYAMA
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Juro Kara, who helped shape Japan’s postwar avant-garde theater, defiantly yet playfully transforming the essence of Kabuki aesthetics into modern storytelling, has died. He was 84. The playwright, director and troupe leader died Saturday from a blood clot in the brain, according to his theater group, Karagumi. Kara rose to stardom in the underground movement of the 1960s known as “un-gura,” characterized by a kitsch rebellious style. His theater was known as “the red tent,” and their shows would go on wherever the tents went up, most famously in a spot near a shrine in Shinjuku in downtown Tokyo. Funeral arrangements were not set but will be for family and friends.